Main Street Capital (MAIN) Competitors

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) and Main Street Capital (NYSE:MAIN) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, media sentiment, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership and community ranking.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in ARCC or MAIN?

Ares Capital received 6 more outperform votes than Main Street Capital when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 62.56% of users gave Ares Capital an outperform vote while only 56.90% of users gave Main Street Capital an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Ares Capital	Outperform Votes 406 62.56%	Underperform Votes 243 37.44%
Main Street Capital	Outperform Votes 400 56.90%	Underperform Votes 303 43.10%

Do analysts recommend ARCC or MAIN?

Ares Capital currently has a consensus price target of $21.50, indicating a potential downside of 0.32%. Main Street Capital has a consensus price target of $47.67, indicating a potential downside of 2.72%. Given Main Street Capital's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Ares Capital is more favorable than Main Street Capital.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ares Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.71
Main Street Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33

Which has more volatility and risk, ARCC or MAIN?

Ares Capital has a beta of 0.99, meaning that its share price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Main Street Capital has a beta of 1.25, meaning that its share price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is ARCC or MAIN a better dividend stock?

Ares Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.9%. Main Street Capital pays an annual dividend of $2.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.9%. Ares Capital pays out 65.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Main Street Capital pays out 52.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Ares Capital has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years and Main Street Capital has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years.

Do institutionals and insiders have more ownership in ARCC or MAIN?

27.4% of Ares Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 20.3% of Main Street Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Ares Capital shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.0% of Main Street Capital shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has better earnings and valuation, ARCC or MAIN?

Ares Capital has higher revenue and earnings than Main Street Capital. Ares Capital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Main Street Capital, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ares Capital	$2.61B	5.07	$1.52B	$2.92	7.39
Main Street Capital	$500.39M	8.39	$428.45M	$5.48	8.94

Is ARCC or MAIN more profitable?

Main Street Capital has a net margin of 89.11% compared to Main Street Capital's net margin of 62.77%. Ares Capital's return on equity of 14.83% beat Main Street Capital's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ares Capital	62.77%	12.37%	5.87%
Main Street Capital	89.11%	14.83%	7.88%

Does the media prefer ARCC or MAIN?

In the previous week, Main Street Capital had 5 more articles in the media than Ares Capital. MarketBeat recorded 15 mentions for Main Street Capital and 10 mentions for Ares Capital. Main Street Capital's average media sentiment score of 1.01 beat Ares Capital's score of 0.38 indicating that Ares Capital is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Ares Capital	5 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Main Street Capital	1 Very Positive mention(s)	6 Positive mention(s)	8 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Summary

Main Street Capital beats Ares Capital on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.